Heineken sales are frothing on a Euros fillip

Heineken sold more than 350 million extra pints in the first half of this year against the first half of last year, thanks in large part to the Euro 2016 football tournament.

The UK and host country France saw strong sales with the Heineken brand showing double-digit growth in Britain.

The firm added that in Britain the success of Strongbow Dark Fruit, Strongbow Cloudy Apple and Old Mout “underpinned volume growth in the UK”.

The brewer sponsors the Champions League, while rival Carlsberg used its “Probably” tag without the brand name in its sponsorship of the Euros to get round tough French advertising laws.

Heineken grew topline profits by 12.5% to 1.71 billion on revenues up 4.7% at 10.1 billion. Jean-François van Boxmeer, chief executive of the world’s third-largest brewer, said it had been a “solid second quarter”.

He added: “Whilst Africa Middle East & Eastern Europe continued to be challenging, performance was strong in some key developing markets such as Vietnam and Mexico. Europe also contributed to our results with positive momentum and a clear focus on operational excellence.”

The brewer added that, despite headwinds in some developing markets, it was sticking with its full-year forecast of a 0.4% rise in profit margins.

It has upped its marketing spend on Strongbow, an official sponsor of Team GB at the Rio Olympics.